Having explored MaaS 3.4, I’m excited to see that it now allows the selection of a custom image during the “Deployment” transitional stage (as shown in the attached screenshot #1), and also supports cloud-init. This means that all my requirements can now be implemented!
However, I’m still unsure about how to change the Ephemeral O.S. for the “Commissioning” stage, as the uploaded Custom O.S. doesn’t appear as an option (see attached screenshot #2). Let me elaborate on my idea.
My goal is to upgrade firmware (EFI, RAID, etc), and possibly pre-configure the hardware RAID volumes, either before or during the “Commissioning” stage. This way, MaaS would display the most recent versions and available volumes for machines in the “Ready” state.
Now that we can select a “Custom O.S.” for the “Deployment” stage (refer to the screenshot #1), I could perform these tasks during “Deployment” and then let MaaS complete the deployment on a fully-updated and pre-configured hardware RAID. However, it seems more appropriate to avoid such tasks during the “Deployment” stage, don’t you think?
I’m also considering configuring all hardware RAID during cloud-init, but performing firmware upgrades during the “Commissioning” or “mid-Deployment” stages with a “Custom O.S.”. However, if I configure the storage volumes via cloud-init at the end of the “Deployment” stage, MaaS might not properly recognize them, leading to inconsistencies.
In a previous post, I discussed similar solutions that now seem achievable with the custom “Deployment” image and cloud-init (Proprietary Firmware Upgrades and Hardware-RAID Layout Setup in MaaS 3.4). I also suggested a two-staged “Commissioning” process, where the first stage would be the current default in MaaS, and a second “Commissioning” process would perform the firmware upgrade using proprietary tools from various vendors.
Regarding the Ephemeral O.S., I’m considering creating a custom Ephemeral image using this project: lp:maas-images : Git : Code : maas-images. Is there a plan to migrate this to packer-maas? This would allow a single “Commissioning” stage, but with all the necessary tools in place, MaaS could perform the required firmware upgrades using proprietary tools, as fwupdmgr doesn’t support all available firmware.
I hope this clarifies my ideas and I look forward to your feedback.
Screenshot #1:
Screenshot #2:
Cheers!